The Dent County Commissioners held their regular meeting. At the meeting, someone asked about having additional meetings during the evening instead of just the four that Commissioner Larson has indicated. The commissioners stated that more could be held if an issue called for it or if the commissioners needed to hear concerns. Jo Ann Maxwell then asked about the annex and if it had been checked for asbestos and about the basement having a dirt floor for record storage. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles stated that Anderson and Associates checked the building and wasn’t sure they did check for asbestos. Maxwell stated she read the report and they didn’t and their report was worth much of anything. She asked why the commissioners didn’t have the state health department check it for free for black mold, asbestos and ADA compliancy. Skiles said that the commissioners decided on Anderson and Associates to do the inspection and draw up plans. This process was bid out. Maxwell then suggested that the county appoint a citizens group to help the commissioners as they could collect information and suggest to the commissioners ideas which they could accept or reject. No action was taken on this suggestion. Both Maxwell and Sharon English added that a long-range plan needs to be implemented that may or may not include the building purchased for the annex. Skiles said that the commission is reviewing the decision to move the prosecutor and juvenile office to the annex by hearing from all those involved for the costs associated with those moves. After numerous hypothetical scenarios were presented by the public to find more space for offices and file storage, Skiles moved on and discussed the cooler for the Coroner. Gina White said that she could rent a space at the Wilson Mortuary that would act as her office with fax, phone, file cabinet and cooler for about $300 per month. The commission is trying to avoid the appearance of favoritism of one funeral home over another, but neither James and Gahr or Dent County Memorial Chapel have coolers. Commissioner Larson said that if the funeral homes wanted to get coolers, then all the funeral homes could be used equally. He said they should be contacted to see if they are interested in buying coolers. There was also a suggestion that maybe the Salem Memorial District Hospital would be interested in having a cooler on their premises. Commissioner Skiles was going to check into that. Once the information is gathered, the commission will contact White and try to finish her budget. Tom Haines with the US Forest Service came by and introduced himself to the new commissioners, and he and Commissioner Skiles reviewed the Jerry Clements issue where he is not being given a permit to have access across about a 250-foot area to get to a forest service road to do some logging on his property. Haines said he has not heard anything more on the issue since he and Skiles talked. In the road report, Commissioner Purcell said that grading was going to be done on Dent County Roads 5015 and 5048, and brush was going to be cut on Dent County Road 5070 and around the subdivision areas. He also said that debris was going to be removed from a bridge on Dent County Road 6080, and that the trucks are now ready if adverse weather arrives. Commissioner Larson said that rock was hauled and grading was done on Dent County Roads 4430, 4433, 5323 and 5340; and just grading was done Friday on Dent County Roads 2020, 3193, 3195, 3220 and 3225. He said that brush was being cut on Dent County Roads 2240 and 3331. He said grading would be done this week if weather allows on Dent County Roads 2020, 2025, 2620, 2630, 3180, 3200 and 5340. Workers will do general maintenance if it gets too cold. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said that every year the MRPC send representatives to Washington to discuss issues with the state’s representatives. His three key issues that he feels need to be addressed are energy independence, amending the 2005 Mark Twain National Forest Plan and jobs need to be created by infrastructure. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley stated that the Board of Trustees for the Dent County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund will be David Nichols, Larry Sensintaffer, Orbin Tobey, Brian Mink and Phillip Giacomelli. At the last meeting, Commissioner Larson discussed the possibility of the license bureau being put in the county to promote more revenue since the offices are now being put out for bid. The prosecutor will see if it is legal for the county to bid on the license office. Judge Seay also attended to discuss the move of the juvenile office into the annex and the cost would be about $28,100 to move the office over there and Dent County’s portion of that would be about $3,244.41. He felt that with the prosecutor’s need for more space and storage, both offices would be a good fit to move into the annex which was the focus of the previous commissioners. The next meeting of the Dent County Commissioners will be Thursday morning at 9;00 at the Dent County Courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

The Salem R-80 Board of Education held a special meeting Monday evening at the district administrative office to discuss resignations. The board accepted the resignations at the end of the school year of business teacher Charles Seals, Jr. High Math teacher Dan Kalaf, and high school math teacher Drew Overmeyer. Claudia Sullivan submitted her retirement letter to the board and they accepted that for the end of the school year. The board then went into closed session.

Jennifer Herndon scored 21 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead the Salem Lady Tigers to a 55-25 win over Cabool last night. Salem is now 5-8 on the year and 1-1 in the SCA. They will be at Willow Springs Thursday night in another SCA game.

The Salem Boys Basketball Tigers will host the Sullivan Eagles tonight in a non-conference game starting at 6:00 with the JV contest with the varsity game to follow. You can hear the varsity game starting with Tiger Talk and Coach Phillip Karr at about 7:10 on KSMO Radio and online at ksmoradio.com. Salem is now 5-7 on the year.

The St. Louis Blues will finish a three game road trip tonight as they travel to Calgary to face the Flames. You can hear the game on KSMO joined in progress after the Salem Tiger Basketball game. The Blues are 1-1 on this road trip and will host Colorado Thursday night at 7:30.

Funeral services for Orin Wesley Lough of Salem, age 92, will be held today at 11:00 at the Wilson Mortuary Chapel in Salem. Visitation will be held from 10:00 until service time. Interment will be in the Jadwin Cemetery.

Funeral services for Delbert Lee Martin of Salem, age 65, will be held Wednesday morning at 11:00 at the Wilson Mortuary Chapel in Salem. Visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 tonight. Interment will be in the North Lawn Cemetery.

Funeral services for Arnold Dunn of Steelville, age 87, will be held Thursday morning at 11:00 at the Britton-Bennett Funeral Home in Steelville. Visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 Wednesday. Interment will be in the Steelville Cemetery.

Funeral services for Verna Mae “nee Martin” Schneider of Black, age 60, will be held Friday at 1:00 at the Wilson Mortuary Viburnum Chapel. Visitation will be from 5;00 to 8:00 Thursday. Interment will be in the Boss Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Sherwood Forest Camp in St. Louis.

Graveside services for James F. Murray of Salem, age 84, will be held Friday at 1:15 at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. All arrangements are under the direction of the Wilson Mortuary of Salem.

Today..Mostly cloudy this morning, then partly cloudy this afternoon, breezy, high near 30.
Tonight..Partly cloudy and breezy, low of 16.
Wednesday..Partly sunny and windy, high of 35.
Wednesday night..Partly cloudy, windy and cold with a chance for flurries, low of 2 with wind chills of 15.